A fully correct and stable alliance of petty peasants and the proletariat, from the socialist point of view, can become reality only when the completely restored transport and large-scale industry enable the proletariat to supply peasants in exchange for food products with all the necessities for them and for the improvement of their economy. Given the enormous devastation of the country, this could in no way be achieved immediately. The requisition system was the most accessible measure for an insufficiently organized state in order to survive in an unprecedented difficult war against the landlords. The crop failure and fodder shortage of 1920 especially intensified the already severe hardship of the peasants, making an immediate transition to the food tax absolutely necessary.

A moderate food tax immediately brings about a major improvement in the position of the peasantry, at the same time interesting it in the expansion of sowings and the improvement of agriculture.

8

V. I. LENIN

The food tax represents the transition from the requisition of all grain surpluses from the peasant to the correct socialist product-exchange between industry and agriculture.